Volume 3, Number 12 · January 28, 1965
The Edge of Europe
By Geoffrey Barraclough
Europe's Steppe Frontier: 1500-1800
by William H. McNeill
University of Chicago, 252 pp., $5.50
Ever since the days of Frederick Jackson Turner people have debated the question of the open frontier and its impact on the development of civilization. Like all other genial ideas, Turner's 'frontier thesis' has incurred its share of criticism. It has also been remarkably fertile. A classic study by Owen Lattimore applied the concept to China. Others have tested its applicability to Australia, South Africa, Hispanic America, and to the eastward expansion of Russia across Siberia to the Pacific. Finally, in 1952, the Texan historian, Walter Prescott Webb, adapted it as the foundation for a sweeping—if hotly disputed—reinterpretation of the course of world history since Columbus.
Review, 1464 words
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